


Everywhere You Go

by TimeLady_12



Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies), The Hobbit - All Media Types, The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-10-10
Updated: 2015-01-08
Packaged: 2018-02-20 15:45:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,370
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2434265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TimeLady_12/pseuds/TimeLady_12
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Amaya Osbourne was shocked to say the least when she ended up in Middle Earth. But things got even stranger when she ended up on an important quest with a company of dwarves. But one thing was for certain, it certainly won't be boring. Fili/OC</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One

Chapter One

I blinked and rubbed my eyes. I blinked again. Nope. I was still in the middle of a forest. I forest, may I add, that I had never seen before and for that matter, was no where near a few minutes ago. If it was a few minutes ago.   
Maybe I should explain myself. My name is Amaya Osbourne, and I never would have thought that anything interesting would come of my life. Anyway, as I was saying… I’m from the city of York in England. Quite a pleasant city if you live in one of the nicer areas. I, however, had spent the first nineteen years of my life working, either at school, or at one of my jobs I had to pay my university fees. So naturally, it was quite a surprise when I woke up in the middle of a forest when I was previously walking home from work in the middle of a crowded city.   
Brushing the dirt off of my jeans, I looked around. Not that it did any good. Everywhere looked the same to me. Trees, trees and more trees. Shrugging, I decided to start walking in a random direction. No use just standing around. I could find out what had happened later.   
Maybe I fell over and was knocked unconscious? I thought. Or maybe I’m already home and just dreaming? Although this all feels very real for a dream. Maybe I was kidnapped!  
I must have been walking for a few hours before I finally made any sort of progress. It wasn’t exactly the edge of the forest, but I’d stumbled across a little stream, and at least that was something. Kneeling down, I splashed some water on my face before taking a drink. I seriously had no idea how I’d managed to get so filthy from the few hours I’d been here. Then again, I never was a very neat person.   
After sitting there for a few more minutes, I finally made a decision. It was starting to get dark, and there was no way I was walking around in the dark. So finding a comfy (or as comfy as it got around here it seems) spot on the ground, I lay down and closed my eyes. Not that it did much good. I was in the middle of a creepy place on my own. Definitely not the most relaxing situation in the world.   
Eventually I did manage to drift off to sleep. Unfortunately that only lasted a minute before I heard the faint sound of metal. Incredibly faint, sure, but I heard it none the less. Luckily for me, because when I cracked my eyes open, I was being pointed at with an incredibly long, incredibly sharp sword.   
“Woah!” I yelled, backing up slowly. “What the hell?” Standing up, I could now see the wielder of the sword. He seemed quite small. Well, he would have if I hadn’t have noticed that I seemed to have shrunk. I only came up to his shoulders. Wasn’t that great. Looking up, I could see that he seemed to have dropped his sword, something that what a great relief. “Dude!”  
“What are you doing here?” he asked. His voice was deep, and seemed to hold a lot of authority.   
“Trying to get to sleep.” I answered. “Obviously not going so well.” I gestured towards his sword.   
The man sighed, dropping his sword so it was resting by his leg. “I meant, what are you doing in the middle of a forest?”   
This time it was my time to sigh. What did he think I was doing in the middle of a forest? “Having a party. What do you think? I got lost.” I bit my lip. “Well, not lost exactly. More to the fact that I have no idea where I am. At all.”   
“I see.” I stared at him for about a minute before I realised he wasn’t going to say anymore. Before I could sit back down, he began to speak again. “You will come with me.”  
“Urm…will I now? Because, honestly, I have no idea who you are.” To be honest, I was very tempted at this point to run around yelling stranger danger!   
“Would you rather remain lost in the forest?” he raised an eyebrow.   
I paused. He raised a very valid argument. Besides, he had a sword, and if he wanted to kill me, he would have already done so, surely? It wasn’t like a posed much of a threat at the moment. “Fine. I suppose…” I drifted off. “I’m Amaya, by the way.” His expression didn’t change. “…just in case, you… you know…wanted to know.”  
His mouth lifted up a fraction for a moment, but it was so brief I thought I’d imagined it. “Thorin Oakenshield.” 

-8-

For the next few days I travelled through the forest with Thorin. I had quickly discovered that he was not very talkative at all, and while I wasn’t the most talkative person in the world, I found myself talking a lot more than I would have normally, trying to find out more about the man I was travelling with.   
I had discovered that he was a dwarf (something that surprised me as I was at least a head shorter), and was travelling to a small place called the Shire, which obviously, I’d never heard of. Other than that, he didn’t reveal much. Although I was grateful none the less for the food and water supply that he had. I was pretty sure I would have starved otherwise.   
Instead, I decided to ask general questions; places nearby, places faraway, general history of where I was. (I’d quickly come to the conclusion that I must have been in a different world for dwarves to exist) Each night, when I was going to sleep, my thoughts raced around my head trying to take in and remember as much as possible.  
As the days went by, I came to the realization that there was a bigger chance that I would be staying here, and strangely, it didn’t bother me. Not at that moment anyway. I didn’t really have anything going for me at home. Life was pretty miserable. I started to imagine possibly starting a life here.   
After the third day of travelling, we finally came to a clearing in the trees. What I saw was one of the most beautiful places I had ever seen. There were hills with little what I assumed were houses judging by the doors and windows in the front, and it was so green. Much greener than anything I had ever seen back home. I could see people walking along small pathways from the distance I was at going about their daily business.   
“Is this the Shire?” I asked Thorin.   
“Yes. Now, I need to go and sort out some supplies for my journey. I think it would be best if you find our host for this evening. My sources tell me that there should be a mark on his door. Look out for that.” He started to walk away.   
“Wait! Thorin!” He stopped. “How long are you going to be?” I was anxious. I didn’t really want to be alone in an unknown place.   
“I shouldn’t be long.” And then he was gone. I sighed and looked around. Well, this place wasn’t too big; it shouldn’t take too long to find a door with a strange mark. ‘Although the mark could look like anything’, I thought.   
Deciding it would be best if I found this place before it got dark, I set off down the (quite steep it turns out) hill I was standing on. It turns out that I wasn’t that far from any (what I still assumed were) houses. I had to admit, these houses were quite cute. The doorways were perfectly round, and I could hear people’s voices coming in through the window. Each had a little garden that was kept to perfection, not a blade of grass out of place. Keeping an eye out for any ‘marks’ on the doors I carried on. I felt quite out of place here, despite the feeling of peace that hung around the place. Walking on, I passed a small woman walking towards me. However it wasn’t the slightly alarmed look she gave me (for what reason I had no idea), or the fact that she sped up slightly. It was her feet that slightly freaked me out. They were huge. Huge, big hairy feet that I had certainly never seen before on anyone. Shrugging, I decided to let it go. It was probably normal around here, and I was really in no place to judge anyone here.   
It was a few hours later before I started thinking of giving up. There were far more houses here than I had originally thought. Just as the sun was starting to set, I found myself on top of a rather tall hill. Again. Needless to say, I was pretty tired by now. Looking around, I saw a small bench nearby. Going to sit down on it, I groaned. This day was not good. I was completely alone in a strange place, and I could not, for the life of me, find that damn door!   
I turned around, trying to get a sense of where I was. What I saw surprised me. There, behind me this whole time, was a door. And on that door, a mark! Now I honestly had no idea if this was the mark I was looking for, but it was the first one I had seen, so it seemed good enough for me. And it definitely looked out of place on the otherwise perfectly painted green door.   
Leaping up, I rushed over to the door, and quickly knocked. Thorin was mad if he thought I was going to be staying out here for the night. Only having to wait for a few seconds or so, the door opened and I came face to face with a small man, much the same as the woman I had seen earlier, although…obviously, this person was more…manly, I guess the word was?  
He was wearing a patchy dressing gown, and I was happy to say that I was actually a little taller than him!   
“Ur…hello.” I stuttered. What was I supposed to say?  
“Hello.”  
“Oh! Urm…this is going to sound really strange, but I have no idea where I am and I’m on my own, and I was pretty sure this was where I was told to go, and he said he was going to be here soon and by now I’m probably rambling…so yeah…”   
“Right! Well, in that case, you’d better come in.” The man looked a bit bewildered by this point.   
“Thanks.” I smiled. “I’m Amaya. Amaya Osbourne.”  
“Bilbo Baggins.”

-8-

A/N: All right! First chapter. Next up, the rest of the company!  
Please review and favourite! :)


	2. Chapter Two

Chapter Two

It turns out I had interrupted Bilbo just when he was finishing his dinner. Fish, by the smell coming in through the kitchen doorway. He quickly rushed out bringing two plates of, indeed, fish. I wasn’t to be honest expecting any food. I mean, I’d already basically barged my way into his house; there was no reason at all for him to give me any food. None the less, I was very grateful. My stomach had been rumbling for hours.   
“Thanks.” I said, sitting down opposite.   
“You’re welcome.” Bilbo replied, giving me a small smile. I could tell he was just as comfortable with this situation as I was. i.e. not very. ‘Oh well’, I thought, digging into my food. “So,” he started. “You said you didn’t know where you were. Where are you from?” Thankfully, I was saved giving an answer by the doorbell ringing. Bilbo excused himself and went to answer the door. Phew, I thought. What was I supposed to tell him? That I was from this strange world that he probably knew nothing about and was magically transported to this place.   
I’d come to the realization when I was outside that this place (‘Middle Earth’, as Thorin had called it), was vaguely familiar to me. Unfortunately, I could not for the life of me, remember where it was familiar from, so I was back to ground zero. I took small bites of my dinner, trying to make it last.   
“Which way, laddie?” I heard a rough voice ask Bilbo. Obviously the person who had rung the doorbell. “Is it down here?”   
“I…is what down where?”   
“Supper. He said there’d be food, and lots of it.”   
“H…he said? Who said?”   
I turned around to see a large man walk into the room. He had a huge beard, a bald head, and he definitely looked like someone I didn’t want to cross. I saw him give a small smirk at the way he was making Bilbo uncomfortable, and proceeded to sit in Bilbo’s seat. Giving him a small, polite smile, I went back to my own dinner as the man helped himself to Bilbo’s. I looked up to see him eating all of Bilbo’s fish, and I don’t use the word ‘all’ lightly. I mean all, head and everything. It wasn’t that nice to watch if I’m honest.   
“Mmmmm…very good this. Any more?” Quickly loosing my appetite (God only knows why!), I slid the plate across the table, receiving a mumbled ‘cheers lass’ in response through the fish that was being devoured again. Bilbo meanwhile had scurried off to retrieve more food, and had now appeared with a plate full of biscuits that he quickly placed on the table.   
“Help yourself.” He said, stepping back quickly as though he would be wounded by just being near this man. “It’s just that…um…I wasn’t expecting company.” I stifled a laugh. That much was obvious. He was about to point something else out (which I assumed would be something equally as obvious) when the bell rang again.   
“That’ll be the door.” Bilbo huffed and shuffled off to see who else had disturbed him this day. “So, lass, what brings you here?” I paused. Partly due to the fact that I hadn’t expected him to talk to me, and also because of the fact that I had no idea what to say. What was I supposed to say? I settled with the truth, or as much as I could say without sounding completely mad.   
“Well, I got lost in the woods, I think…anyway, I met this guy, and he helped me and told me to wait here until he came back.” I thought back on what I said. Yep, completely mad.   
“Ah, I see.” He chuckled.   
“What! Don’t judge me. If anything, you owe me. I gave you my dinner.” I internally winced.   
“You didn’t have to.” He pointed out. He had me there.   
“Yeah, well…shut up.” He chuckled (again! I was beginning to think I was brought here to be the amusement of this guy), and walked away to get more food.   
“Evening, brother dear.” I heard a new voice say. Since when did someone else arrive?  
“Oh, by my beard. You are shorter and wider than last we met.”  
“Wider, not shorter. Sharp enough for both of us.” I walked around the corner to see who was talking. I came face to face with someone who was indeed shorter than the first man, although he had a full hair of white hair with a huge beard to match. And he definitely seemed a lot cheerier than his brother. “Ah!” he said, catching sight of me. “And who would this be?”   
“Me? Oh, I’m Amaya.” I smiled.   
“Pleasure to meet you, lass.” He smiled back. “I’m Balin, and I’m sure you’ve already been introduced to my brother, Dwalin.” So that was the other man’s name! But I went along with it and nodded anyway.   
“Uh, excuse me; sorry, I hate to interrupt.” Butted in Bilbo. “Ah, but the thing us, I’m not entirely sure you’re in the right house.” Not surprisingly, he was ignored and the two, I was later informed dwarves, walked into his pantry to search for more food. “It’s not that I don’t like visitors; I…I like visitors as much as the next Hobbit (So that’s what Bilbo was!), but I do like to know them before they come visiting.”  
“What’s this?” asked Dwalin, picking up a huge lump of moldy cheese.   
“I don’t know…cheese? It’s gone blue.”  
“It’s riddled with mold.”   
“The thing is…” continued Bilbo. “I…I don’t know any of you, not in the slightest. I don’t mean to be blunt, but I uh…but I had to speak my mind. I’m sorry.”   
“Apology accepted!” grinned Balin. I walked over to them.   
“The cheese is meant to be moldy, you know.”   
“Really?” they asked. “I find that hard to believe.” Snorted Dwalin. “Why would you eat that?”  
“Don’t ask me. I’ve never liked it.” I shrugged.   
“Right. Come on, lass. Let’s get some food down ya. You’re as thin as a twig!” I rolled my eyes and followed them to the table. I sat down and watched as they brought more and more food onto the table and gathered more chairs for others who I guessed were coming. I was so busy watching these two, I never noticed that two more dwarves had arrived until I noticed that Dwalin and Balin had stopped to greet them. I really needed to start paying more attention.   
“Fili, Kili, come on, give us a hand.” Dwalin said. I remained seated, not bothering to move from my spot. By this point in the day, I really couldn’t be bothered.   
“Now hang on a minute, Mister Dwalin, you must introduce us to this lovely young lady.” Said one of the new dwarves. I looked up to see the two new additions staring down at me. The darker haired one had a mischievous grin on his face, probably the one who spoke, whereas his brother (I was assuming they were brothers by their very similar sounding names) was staring at me with this weird expression. He had a golden blonde head of hair and was slightly shorter than his brother with more of a beard and a braided moustache. (Which I found strange, but oddly attractive) He was nudged in the ribs by his brother and he quickly snapped out of whatever he was in. “I apologise for my brother, miss. I am Kili and this is my brother Fili.”   
“Hey.” I replied. “I’m Amaya.”  
“That is a beautiful name, Miss Amaya.” Said Fili, walking up and placing a kiss on my hand. I was sure that my face was a dark shade of red by this point.   
“Thanks.” I mumbled. This was beyond awkward. I wasn’t used to that kind of attention, no matter what it was, and I had no idea on how to react. I decided the best course of action was to see what all the noise was in the hallway, and turned to realize there was now a lot more dwarves in Bilbo’s house. A lot more. And it was very amusing to watch, partly due to the fact that they were in a massive pile in the front porch. Standing up mumbling, they wasted no time in scattering all over the house, carrying chairs, food, drink, literally anything they could get their hands on, and carrying it into the dining room as if they owned the place.   
“How about we introduce you to everyone?” came a voice from behind me. I turned to find that Kili had followed me, a smirk still spread across his face.   
“Yeah…that would be…good.” I stuttered, a little overwhelmed with all the new company.  
“Ok, well, that over there is Oin, there’s Gloin, you know Dwalin and Balin I’m assuming, Bifur, Bofur, Bombur, Dori, Nori, Ori, and the wizard over there is Gandalf.” My mouth dropped.   
“Wizard? Like, Harry Potter wizard? You know, expecto patronum…that kind of wizard?” By the bewildered look from Kili, and everyone else seated in the dining room which we were back in, I quickly remembered that the people here would have absolutely no idea who or what any or those things were, so I quickly explained myself. “I’m sorry, I mean like, a magic wizard? He can do magic?”  
“Of course he can do magic, lass!” said the dwarf with the funny hat. Bofur, I think he was called. “He’s a wizard!”   
“Right…of course.” Duh.   
“Come sit over here, Miss Amaya. We got you some food.” Baffled, I maneuvered myself over the chairs and dwarves surrounding the table and sat down between Fili and Kili. Looking down at the plate that was pushed in front of me, my eyes widened. The plate was piled sky high full of food. Bread, meat, cheese, you name it, it was probably there. There was no way in hell I was going to eat all this. But, never one to back down from a challenge, I dove right in, causing some of the dwarves around me to chuckle. I could vaguely overhear Bilbo over all the noise.   
“No, no, that’s Grandpa Mungo’s chair! No, I’m sorry; you’ll have to take it back please. Take it back…it’s antique. Not for sitting on! Thank you. That’s a book, not a coaster. Put that map down, thank you.”  
“I cannot hear what you’re saying!” yelled Oin. For most of this part of the night, I was quiet, partly due to the fact that I had no idea what to say, and partly because I was too busy eating. I was also fascinated by the fact that Bombur could catch a bit of food thrown from the other side of the room in his mouth. Yep, I thought, dwarves are cool.   
“Who wants an ale?” asked Fili, who had apparently left to make several cups. I really need to pay more attention.   
“Let him have another drink!” shouted Dwalin.   
“Here you go.” I was wondering what Dwalin was talking about until I watched him pour the ale down poor Oin’s hearing trumpet, making him splutter in anger. Although I had to laugh along with the others. “And one for the lady.” Added Fili, gently putting a cup of ale on the table in front of me.   
“On the count of three!” Shouted one of the dwarves. I furrowed my eyebrows. What was going on now? “One, two, three!” As soon as the number three was said, all the dwarves sat around the table were immediately quiet and literally poured the ale into their mouths, making it drip all down their beards. Nice… Not to mention that once they’d all finished a competition seemed to start as to who had the loudest burp. Ori, sweet little Ori who had been asking me questions for most of the night, surprisingly won. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Bilbo walk away in disgust. I compromised to just sipping my ale.   
“So, Miss Amelia, where are you from?” asked Bofur. I looked around to see I had got all of the dwarves’ attention.   
“Oh! Urm…well…York.” As if they knew where that was.   
“York? Never heard of it. Is it down south?”   
“Uh…not really…it’s not really anywhere around here, I don’t think.” What the hell did that even mean? This answer only peaked the dwarves’ interest, and soon I was being bombarded with questions.   
“What did you do there?” asked Ori, who was writing everything down in his journal.   
“I went to university. And worked as a waitress in my spare time.” I chuckled at the confused expressions on their faces.   
“What’s university?”   
“It’s somewhere that you go to learn something. For example, I went to study psychology, which is the study of other people- how they behave, interact, think…” The dwarves gave a collective “Ohhhhhh!” 

-8-

“Excuse me, that is a doily, not a dishcloth!” shouted Bilbo to Bofur once the meal had finished. Well, once the dwarves had stopped eating anyway. Knowing them, they would probably be back for more food if there was even some left.   
“But it’s full of holes!”  
“It’s supposed to look like that, it’s crochet.”   
“Oh, and a wonderful game it is too, if you for the balls for it.”   
“Bebother and confusticate these dwarves!” I smiled at Bilbo (honestly, it was quite funny watching him argue with these dwarves considering they were both as stubborn as each other), but decided on letting Gandalf handle him. I’d probably end up making him madder, and I’d already learnt that a partially mad Hobbit was scary enough.  
“So what do you think of dwarves so far, Miss Amelia?” came a voice from behind me, making me jump.   
“Fili! You scared me.” His grin didn’t falter. “Well… you are certainly…different.”  
“Good different, though?”   
“Of course.” I smiled. Jesus, a full conversation with this guy without sounding like a complete prat! One point to me.   
“I have to admit though, when I first saw you, I thought you were a dwarf. I mean, you’re definitely the size of one.”  
“So why don’t you now?”  
He chuckled. Did anything this dwarf did not sound amazing? I was beginning to think not. “Well, besides the fact that you have no idea about anything from around here, you are far to hairless to be a dwarf.” His hand skimmed my chin. “Not that that’s a bad thing of course.”   
“Wait. Women dwarves have beards?”   
“Yes.” He laughed at the shocked expression on my face.   
“And you like that?”  
“Well, each to their own. Most dwarves don’t court anyway, too engrossed in their work to think of that sort of thing. And a dwarf only loves once. When you see the right person, you know it.” His eyes softened when he said that. I wondered if he had met someone back home, and wondered about the disappointed feeling I had at the thought. “But there are barely any dwarf women. Only about a third of our population are female. It’s sometimes hard to tell who are women and who are men, they look so alike!” We both laughed at that. “What’s it like where you’re from?”  
“Oh! Very different to what you’re used to, I’m sure. People don’t really get together because they love each other, I guess. I’m not really sure how it all works; I was never one for relationships.” Fili nodded as if he was in deep thought, and then the grin returned.   
“Well, I’m sure that they were not good enough for you. Come, sanâzyung.” He led me to the doorway of the dining room, before stepping over to Ori, Bilbo and Gandalf. I was confused as to what he called me. Was it in some sort of Dwarf language? And what did it mean?  
“Excuse me.” Said Ori to Bilbo. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but what should I do with my plate?”   
“Here you go, Ori, give it to me.” Fili took the plate from Ori and threw it across the room to Kili, shooting me a wink. I cursed myself when I blushed. Kili then threw the plate behind his back to Bifur who was standing by the sink, and caught it without even looking. Will dwarves ever cease to amaze me tonight? Suddenly, there were plates and utensils flying everywhere, and the dwarves sitting at the table started creating a beat with their fists and spare utensils.   
“Excuse me!” shouted Bilbo, over all the noise. “That’s my mother’s West Farthing crockery; it’s over a hundred years old! And can-can you not do that? You’ll blunt them!”   
“Ooh, d’hear that, lads?” teased Bofur. “He says we’ll blunt the knives!” Then, suddenly, I felt as if I was in some messed up version of High School Musical involving dwarves, as they all began to sing:  
Blunt the knives, bend the forks  
Smash the bottles and burn the corks  
Chip the glasses and crack the plates  
That’s what Bilbo Baggins hates!  
Cut the cloth and tread on the fat  
Leave the bones on the bedroom mat  
Pour the milk on the pantry floor  
Splash the wine on every door  
Dump the crocks in a boiling bowl  
Pound them up with a thumping pole  
When you’ve finished, if any are whole  
Send then down the hall to roll  
That’s what Bilbo Baggins hates!  
By the end of the song, my cheeks were hurting from grinning so much, and I was clapping along with everyone else. Well, everyone but Bilbo, who still did not look very impressed. Looking into the kitchen, I saw that all of the dishes were clean and neatly piled by the sink. That was so cool. I walked over to Fili and Kili.   
“Nice song. You should start a band.” They laughed and we walked into the hallway, when suddenly, there were three loud knocks on the door making everyone fall silent.   
“He is here.” Said Gandalf. That better be Thorin, I thought to myself. 

-8-

A/N: All right! So, the company has arrived! And a nice big update! The next one shouldn’t be too long!   
Please review and favourite!


	3. Chapter Three

Chapter Three

It was Thorin. Thank God! It wasn’t that I didn’t enjoy the company I was currently in- they were certainly a friendly bunch- but it was nice to see the first person that had actually helped me first in this world. Having saying that, he didn’t look like he was in the ‘helping’ mood. Particularly because of the scowl that was on his face at the particular moment.  
“Gandalf.” He said. “I thought you said this place would be easy to find. I lost my way, twice. Wouldn’t have found it al all had it not been for that mark on the door.” Ha! So it wasn’t just me that had trouble finding this place! I knew it.   
“Mark?” exclaimed Bilbo, pushing his way through the mass of dwarves that had gathered in front of him, and in front of me. “There’s no mark on that door. It was painted a week ago!”  
“There is a mark; I put it there myself.” Countered Gandalf. “Bilbo Baggins, allow me to introduce the leader of our company, Thorin Oakenshield.”   
“So this is the Hobbit. Tell me, Mr Baggins, have you done much fighting?” I didn’t envy Bilbo at the moment. The look of intense…well, intenseness, Thorin was giving Bilbo was enough to make anyone squirm.   
“Pardon me?”  
“Axe or sword? What’s your weapon of choice?”   
“Well, I have some skill at conkers, if you must know, but I fail to see why that’s relevant.” I stifled a snort.   
“Thought as much. He looks more like a grocer than a burglar.” Seeing Thorin about to walk into the next room, I scurried through the hoard of dwarves, which let me tell you, was very hard to push through!   
“Oy!” I shouted, much to the surprise of the other dwarves. Guess I hadn’t remembered to tell them that I knew Thorin. Oh well. “You better not have forgotten about me!” I mean, come on. He’d been the one to tell me to come here in the first place. Thorin turned around with a partially amused look on his face. I guess that’s all you really got from him. Well, it was good enough.   
“How could I forget about you?” he replied, obviously thinking of the times when I had not shut up when I was walking with him in the forest. I knew I’d rubbed off on him! He’s already using sarcasm! “Anyway, I see you found your way here.”  
“Yeah, after about a day of searching.” I muttered, trailing after him into the dining room.  
“You’ve been looked after well?” he asked.   
“Oh, yeah! I’ve had the time of my life.” Thorin rolled his eyes and sat at the head of the table, obviously seeing as he was the head of this company, while the rest of us sat mainly where we had sat before, me next to Fili and Kili.   
“How do you know Uncle Thorin?” asked Kili, listening to our conversation.   
“He’s your uncle?” I spluttered.   
“Yes.” Replied Kili, puffing out his chest, obviously feeling very proud of that fact.   
“That must be…fun.” Fun? Seriously? What was I saying?  
“I know he doesn’t seem like it, but he does have a soft side. After our father died when we were younger, he acted as our father figure, and we couldn’t wish for better.” Explained Fili. “But you haven’t answered Kili’s question. How do you know Uncle?”  
“Oh! Well, remember me saying that I was lost in the woods and a guy found me and directed me here?” They nodded. “That was Thorin. He told me to find this place and wait until he came. I had no idea what I was expecting to be honest.” I chuckled nervously. I was crap at explaining things, I swear to God. “Definitely not a bunch of rowdy dwarves, that’s for sure! We don’t even have dwarves where I come from.”  
“There are no dwarves?” asked Ori, pulling his book out again. It seemed most of the others were listening to our conversation. I guess privacy wasn’t a big thing now. And it was must be weird to hear of a world where you don’t exist.  
“No…they only exist in stories and fairytales.” The looks of outrage from the others suggested I’d offended them. Oops. “We only have humans…well, I guess you’d say the race of Man.”   
“Strange…”

-8-

“What news from the meeting in Ered Luin? Did they all come?” asked Balin, once Thorin had been given some food from Bilbo.   
“Aye. Envoys from all seven kingdoms.” The dwarves murmured their joy. I guess that was a good thing?  
“What do the dwarves of the Iron Hills say? Is Dain with us?”  
“They will not come.” The dwarves now moaned. I joined in.  
“What are you doing?” asked Fili.  
“Joining in. That was bad news right?” He just shook his head, looking amused.   
“They say this quest is ours, and ours alone.” Continued Thorin.   
“You’re going on a quest?” squeaked Bilbo.  
“Yeah.” I echoed, hoping, finally, that I would discover what Thorin was planning. “You’re going on a quest?”  
“Bilbo, my dear fellow, let us have a little more light.” Said Gandalf. Bilbo hurried off and quickly returned with a medium sized lamp. “Far to the east, over ranges and rivers, beyond woodlands and wastelands, lies a single solitary peak.” The wizard certainly was dramatic.   
“The Lonely Mountain?” asked Bilbo, reading off a piece of parchment in front of Thorin.   
“Aye.” Spoke up Gloin. “Oin has read the portents, and the portents say it is time.”  
“Ravens have been seen flying back to the mountain as it was foretold: When the birds of yore return to Erebor, the reign of the beast will end.”  
“What beast?” asked Bilbo. Beast. I knew this world seemed too good to be true. Beautiful woodlands, good looking guys (not that I was thinking of Fili, oh no!), but there was always a catch!  
“Well, that would be a reference to Smaug the Terrible, chiefest and greatest calamity of our age.” Informed Bofur, obviously not being very helpful for the Hobbit considering how his skin got paler by several shades. I wasn’t happy with the facts he was saying either, but at least I remained rather calm; at least on the outside. “Airbourne fire-breather, teeth like razors, claws like meathooks, extremely fond of precious metals…”  
“Yes, I know what a dragon is.” Interrupted Bilbo. Great, a dragon. Anything else I needed to know?  
“I’m not afraid!” exclaimed Ori, standing up, looking determined. “I’m up for it. I’ll give him a taste of the Dwarfish iron right up his jacksie!”  
“Sit down!” hissed Dori, pulling his younger brother back into his seat. I looked at him and gave him a small smile, to which he blushed and looked away.   
“The task would be difficult enough with an army behind us.” Said Balin. “But we number just thirteen, and not thirteen of the best, nor brightest.”  
“Ah, ever the optimist…” I muttered. I heard Fili and Kili laugh.   
“What did he say?” asked Oin. I wasn’t sure whether he was joking or not, but when he pulled an ear trumpet out, I figured not.   
“We may be few in number, but we’re fighters, all of us, to the last dwarf!” encouraged Fili, trying to give an encouraging look to the others. It…sort of worked. I swear, so far this dwarf was pretty much perfect, and I felt like I’d known him for years. Which was odd, considering I mainly avoided people in my world. Far too much hassle. And I didn’t like them. At all.   
“Nice little speech.” I said, turning to face him. “Very inspiring.”  
“Well I try.” We laughed.  
“And you forget!” added Kili, sending me a little smirk while I was talking to his brother. I glared at him. “We have a wizard in our company. Gandalf will have killed hundreds of dragons in his time.”  
“Oh, well, now, uh, I…I…I wouldn’t say that, I…” The wizard spluttered.   
“How many then?” demanded Dori.   
“Uh, what?”  
“Well, how many dragons have you killed? Go on, give us a number!”  
“Hmm…” Then the arguing started. All the dwarves getting to their feet arguing about Lord only knows what! It was rather amusing to be honest. Some of them were getting rather red in the face.   
“What have you started?” I asked Kili, who was looking as amused as I felt as he looked around.   
“I didn’t say anything! It was Dori that pushed the subject, not me.”  
“Yes, but you started it.” I gave him my ‘point proven’ face, which was just me smirking and raising my eyebrows in a rather smug manner, before turning back around.   
“Shazara!” shouted Thorin, in some language to which I had no clue what he was saying. It seemed to work though as the room became silent and the dwarves settled down. “If we have read these signs, do you not think others will have read them too? Rumours have begun to spread. The dragon Smaug has not been seen for 60 years. Eyes look east to the mountain, assessing, wondering, weighing the risk. Perhaps the vast wealth of our people now lies unprotected. Do we sit back while others claim what is rightfully ours? Or do we seize this chance to take back Erebor? Du Bekâr! Du Bekâr!” The dwarves cheered, while all I could think was, that speech had to rehearsed.   
“You forget.” Said Balin. “The front gate is sealed. There is no way into the mountain.” Way to be a kill joy.   
“That, my dear Balin, is not entirely true.” Replied Gandalf. Quite slowly if you ask me, Gandalf reached into his cloak and pulled out a rather old looking key on a long chain. It must have been pretty important judging from the awed look on Thorin’s face.   
“How came you by this?”  
“It was given to me by your father, by Thrain, for safekeeping. It is yours now.”   
“If there is a key, there must be a door.” Stated Fili, looking excited.  
“These runes speak of a hidden passage to the lower hills.”  
“There’s another way in!” shouted Kili. No shit Sherlock.   
“Well, if we can find it, but dwarf doors are invisible when closed. The answer lies hidden somewhere in this map and I do not have the skill to find it.” I let out a ‘disappointed’ sigh at this, which received a glare from the wizard in question. “But there are others in Middle-Earth who can. The task I have in mind will require a great deal of stealth, and no small amount of courage. But, if we are careful and clever, I believe it can be done.”   
“That’s why we need a burglar.” Inputted Ori.   
“Hmm…a good one, too.” Agreed Bilbo. “An expert, I’d imagine.”  
“And are you?” asked Gloin.   
“Am I what?”  
“He said he’s an expert!” said Oin, clearly not hearing what the Hobbit had said. Several other dwarves laughed at Bilbo’s face.  
“M…me? No, no, no, no, no. I’m not a burglar; I’ve never stolen a thing in my life!”   
“I’m afraid I have to agree with Mr. Baggins. He’s hardly burglar material.” Said Balin. I saw Bilbo nodding in agreement.   
“Aye. The wild is no place for gentlefolk who can neither fight nor fend for themselves.” I saw Dwalin give me a look as he said that.   
“Hey! I am perfectly capable of looking after myself!” I exclaimed. God knows I’d been doing it for long enough.   
“He’s not saying your not, lass.” Said Balin. “But you are a woman, and…”  
“And? What has that got to do with anything?”  
“The wilderness is not place for a woman such as yourself.”   
“Excuse me…!”   
“Enough!” boomed Gandalf, seeing to get a lot bigger and dim all the lights in the room. “If I say that Bilbo Baggins is a burglar, then a burglar he is.” He shrunk back to his original height. “Hobbits are remarkably light on their feet. In fact, they can pass unseen by most if they choose. And while the dragon is accustomed to the smell of dwarf, the scent of hobbit is all but unknown to him, which gives us a distinct advantage. You asked me to find the fourteenth member of this company, and I have chosen Mr Baggins. There’s a lot more to him than appearances suggest, and he’s got a great deal more to offer than any of you know, including himself. You must trust me on this.” He seemed to take a big breath in and out. “As for Miss Osbourne. I am not sure of her coming. However, I see a lot of potential in her. Nonetheless, it is Thorin’s decision.”   
“She comes.” Said Thorin, giving me a look saying we’ll talk later. I’d learnt to interpret his many ‘looks’ throughout the few days of travelling with him in the forest. “And very well. As for the Hobbit, we will do it your way.”   
“No, no, no!” piped up Bilbo, now that the attention had turned to him again.   
“Give him the contract.”  
“Please!”  
“Alright, we’re off!” exclaimed Bofur.   
Balin handed Bilbo a huge contract. Damn it if I had to read one of those. “It’s just the usual summary of out-of-pocket expenses, time required, remuneration, funeral arrangements, so forth.”  
“Funeral arrangements?” squeaked Bilbo. “Let’s see…terms: cash on delivery, up to but not exceeding one fourteenth of total profit, if any. Seems fair. Eh, present company shall not be liable for injuries inflicted by or sustained as a consequence thereof including but not limited to lacerations…evisceration…incineration?”  
“Oh, aye.” Enthused Bofur. “He’ll melt the flesh off your bones in the blink of an eye.”  
“Huh.” Bilbo looked a little breathless by this point. Poor thing. I wasn’t entirely happy with what Bofur was saying, (what sane person would be) but Bilbo did not look comfortable in the slightest. I found myself leaning into Fili as the very nice description of this dragon carried on.   
“You all right, laddie?” asked Balin.   
“Uh, yeah…feel a bit faint.”  
“Think furnace with wings.” Carried on Bofur.   
“Air, I…I…I need air.”  
“Flash of light, searing pain, then, poof! You’re nothing more than a pile of ash!” Bilbo’s breathing got heavier, and just when he looked like he was going to be okay…  
“Hmmmm…nope.” …He fainted.   
“Ah, very helpful Bofur.” Said Gandalf.   
“Are you ok, Miz Sanâzyung?” asked Fili, looking down at me. I gave him a confused look. “You look a little pale.”   
“Do I? Oh. Well, I’m fine. Just…dragons, you know?”   
“Haha, yeah. It can do that to you.” Soon, conversation started amongst the dwarves again as Gandalf made Bofur help him move Bilbo into this armchair.   
Things just got a whole lot more interesting…

A/N: Yay! An update!   
Next chapter means the start of he journey!


End file.
